Voice of Asia Network torched in Sri Lanka

New York, July 30, 2010—Two employees were injured in an arson attack today on the offices of the Voice of Asia Network in the heart of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, according to international and local media reports. The fire destroyed the studios of the group’s Siyatha TV station, but the network’s three radio stations have been able to remain on the air.

The Associated Press, quoting a spokesman for the company,
said a dozen men, armed with assault rifles and gasoline bombs carried out the
attack at 1:30 p.m. (Video of the damage is
available here.)

Siyatha TV mainly
aired entertainment programming, but the network’s owners had been widely
reported to be supporters of the main opposition candidate, ex-army chief
Sarath Fonseka, in January’s hard-fought presidential election won by President
Mahindra Rajapaksa.

“This attack is more of the same in Sri Lanka—media
tied to opposition figures continue to be targeted. Brazen attacks remain an
easy option for those who want to hit back at the government’s opposition,”
said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program
coordinator. “There have been no prosecutions of any of the many similar
attacks under the Rajapaksa government. The opposition media are on their own
in Sri Lanka,
a reality the international community must address.”

Friday’s attack was reminiscent of the January 6, 2009, raid on the country’s main
independently owned TV station, Sirasa TV, by 15 to 20 armed, masked men who blew
up the station’s main control room. There have been no arrests made in that
case, and the investigation appears to be stalled, CPJ
reported in its special report “In Sri Lanka, no peace dividend for press.”

In November 2008, masked men torched the press room of The Sunday Leader, Morning Leader, and the Irudina
Sinhala weekly, damaging presses and copies of the papers. On January 8, 2009,
the editor-in-chief of The Sunday Leader,
Lasantha
Wickramatunga, was killed by eight men on four motorcycles who attacked him
with metal and wooden poles after cutting off his car on a busy street just
outside Colombo.
CPJ has recorded many similar
attacks over the years.